The Marching Mules began crafting their first halftime show of the 2023 football season with a show arranged by the Director of Athletic Bands for the University of Central Missouri, Mark Bonner.
The building of the show, entitled “Twice Upon a Time,” is a collaboration between Bonner and several student leaders.
“So [much] of [building the show] was conversations with students,” said Bonner. “They told me about the music that they were looking for, they came up with some of the ideas that could go into the drill.”
Bonner went on to say that the design of the story comes from students sharing their ideas to Bonner himself and students in leadership.
“We gathered that most of them wanted to do some type of… mystery show or fantasy show,” said Bonner. “We kind of figured… let’s put all this together in one idea.”
According to Bonner, the idea became a story of two twins battling for the throne.
Student leader, CJ Strathman, worked on the story design for “Twice Upon a Time.” Strathman said that the visual elements of the performance are arranged so that story elements such as conflict and mystical components are seen and heard.
“We have a scene where the castle gets blown up by a dragon, so everyone is… crawling or… slowly walking to the back of the field,” said Strathman. “There’s a scene where we’re all fighting each other and so we’re trying to… make it look like an actual… action sequence.”
In the process of coordinating “Twice Upon a Time,” student leaders have gained performance design experience. Strathman said that she most enjoys that the show was not the work of a lone individual.
“Twice Upon a Time” is a collection of pieces from popular culture submitted by the marching band members. Trumpet player, Natalie Schuette, said that she is happy to perform a show with references to which she can relate.
“A lot of this music that is put into this specific show is a lot from… my childhood,” said Schuette. “It’s super fun to see a show combined with [this] music, that is made by our director, performed on the field.”
Schuette said that she also appreciates that students are the source of the show’s main ideas.
“It gives us as the students the opportunity to put back our input on things and to be able to make the show creatively ours,” said Schuette.
“Twice Upon a Time” has already been unveiled at UCM home football games this season, but according to Bonner, each performance will be unique.
“Every single show that we’ll perform… something is a little bit different about it,” said Bonner.